It is known that separate power/energy meters are generally installed for each consumer and/or house hold by the utility company or electricity provider. Even when the houses are in close proximity, separate power meters are required to ensure that the consumption by each consumer is properly accounted. Power meters are a capital expense for the utility and if possible, utilities would like to reduce this capital expense. Electronic energy meters are known in the art and have distinct advantages in terms of cost, size and ease of installation. Information pertaining to electronic energy meters is available in prior art. Examples of some prior art publications relating to energy meters include: (i) Publication in Metering Asia Pacific conference, 20–22 Feb. 2001 conference Documentation, titled “Exceeding 60 year Life expectancy from an Electronic Energy Meter, by Natasha Wan and Kevin Manning of Analog Devices, Wilmington, Mass. 01887, and (ii) Publication in Solid State solutions for Electricity and Metrology, entitled Metering & Tariffs for Energy Supply, 25–28 May 1999, Conference Publication No 462 IEEE 1999, by A. Collins, of Analog Devices Inc, Wilmington, Mass. 01887.
Currently, electrical energy consumers are provided with individual power meters (electromechanical or electronic power meter). Power meters are primarily classified in to two categories, single phase meters and three phase meters. The present invention is applicable to single phase and three phase electronic energy metering. Generally, each single phase electronic energy meter uses a separate Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or micro-controller based computational engine. Each prior art single phase electronic energy meter also has subsections such as a separate power supply, LCD display, Real Time Clock (RTC), Non-volatile memory, etc., which are essentially replication of sections for each meter. It is desirable to address the issues of economy and possibility of reducing tampering by consumers, in electrical energy meters provided for users who are particularly proximate to each other.